


How Long Do We Have Together?

by jackjones47



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Bittersweet Ending, But she is sick, F/F, Root is Alive, Set after the fall of Samaritan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-11
Updated: 2016-12-15
Packaged: 2018-09-07 21:20:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8816593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jackjones47/pseuds/jackjones47
Summary: Shaw learns that Root is alive. Why is her perky psycho staying away from her?





	1. One

In the interrogation room at the 8th precinct, NYPD Detective Dani Silva raised her eyes from the file she had just finished reading, and looked up at the handcuffed man sitting opposite her on the other side of the table.

“So, William Crane, two turns in Iraq, Special Forces. Disappeared from the grid three years ago, then this morning involved in a bank robbery which left two customers wounded … Good thing I was hanging around there, I was able to stop you before you could do more damage.“

“Yeah, okay, cut the crap and send me to Rykers … I am not afraid.”

“ … And there is something else, Bill, something you don’t know yet. See, one of my colleagues recognized you … “

The man raised an eyebrow interrogatively, and Dani called for an uniformed cop, who entered the room and stared at the villain thoroughly, then nodded “Yes, I am sure, it’s him. It happened two months ago, I was on patrol, I saw a six-member team of heavily armed men heading towards a building. They were wearing black combat uniforms, like those of the SWAT teams, only unmarked; and he was one of them.  
Some minutes after that a missile hit the top of that building; still some more minutes, and this guy gets out, with an injured arm.”

Dani said: “Thank you, Bolden.” And the cop went out.

The female Detective addressed the robber: “You know who died on that rooftop, don’t you, Bill? Besides your teammates, I mean. One of our Detectives, John Riley. A man who saved my life. We found his remnants in the rubble.”

“You have no evidence I shot him!”

“You know what? You tell me anything you know about this paramilitary organization that hired you, and I won’t tell the judge that you wanted to kill the two people you only wounded … “

“I didn’t want to kill anyone! I shot them in the legs, because they were trying to escape.”

“So why did you approach them when they were lying on the ground, and pointed your gun to their heads saying: ‘Now I’m gonna kill you!’?”

Crane was dumbfounded “What? I didn’t say that … “

“And whom are the jurors believing, a cop or a robber?”

“Damned … but if I spill, I might be accused of other felonies … “

“Nobody else will know, only me. This is personal, Crane, and I need to know not only what happened to my friend, but also why he was killed.”

“Jesus … okay, why not? The organization I worked for is finished anyway, so I have no reason to hold back anything.”

“Okay then, let’s get started. First of all, when did they hire you? And what did you do for them, exactly?”

“I joined them three years ago. As a vet, it shouldn’t surprise you that I was part of security details for some high-rank executives of our company; meetings, conferences held by an old Briton; I didn’t know what they did, or why, I only followed orders.  
About one year ago things changed. I was sent to Johannesburg and my team was entrusted to guard a prisoner, a woman … the scariest person I have ever met.”

Dani chuckled “Really? How was she like … ten feet tall, ugly and bearded?”

“No, she was short and beautiful, Middle-eastern, I think … and she killed six of the men that were supposed to hold her captive.”

Dani frowned “How could she? Wasn’t she restrained, tied … and unarmed, of course?”

Crane huffed “Nothing could restrain that woman; and she didn’t need any weapon to kill a trained operative … or six. Snapping their necks, or slashing their throats with a piece of glass … and doing all this without even flinching. I heard she was a sociopath.”

“And her name was … “

“They called her Shaw.”

“Why didn’t your bosses kill her?”

“They were trying to extract information from her, so her life was safe … not our lives, though. But she escaped, eventually. I have never heard about her after that.”

“Okay, then what happened to you?”

“Some days after, they sent me here in the city. One day, I was assigned to assist an agent who went to retrieve a wounded woman.”

“Not the same woman?”

“Another one, taller, Caucasian … she had a bullet wound, one of our snipers had shot her … lower abdomen, I think.”

“So, she was an enemy, and you went to kill her?”

“No, we went to catch her, but my boss wanted that her friends believed she was dead, so we went, disguised as paramedics, to the hospital we knew she had been taken to, the St. Mary, and injected her with something that made her still and pale, apparently dead. Then a cop showed up, and saw her. At that point, we took her away and our doctors intervened.”

“Do you know her name?”

“The boss said her name was Groves, I remember that, but she had lots of aliases.”

“Did she survive?”

“As far as I know, yes.”

“This cop, can you describe him?”

“Late forties, chubby, curly-haired … and he knew her.”

“How do you know that?”

“He was affected by her death … well, fake death; he almost cried.”

“Okay. And back to that woman, what happened to her, after your organization fell?”

“I don’t know. About a week after that I went on that rooftop with a team; out task was to kill a man who was trying to do something with an antenna and a laptop, but don’t ask me what. I was the only one that got out of that mess alive. Then nobody contacted me anymore, and that virus was spreading worldwide. I was broke, so I went for that little bank robbery.”

“So, is this all?”

“Yes, Detective.”

“It’s not easy to believe that a powerful international criminal organization existed, and nobody knew about it. Any proof that your story is true?”

“God, no! How could I give you one? Everyone I knew in that organization is vanished.”

“Okay, now we go for a trip to your jail cell, I’ll try to check your tale.”

 

Det. Silva and Crane got out of the room, but after a moment the robber gasped. Dani looked at him; he was pale and was staring at two people speaking to each other at a desk: a short, beautiful, Middle-eastern woman and a chubby, curly-haired Detective in his late-forties. A man she knew well: Lionel Fusco.

A whisper escaped her lips “Holy crap!”


	2. Two

Lionel Fusco was sitting at his desk, trying to focus on the task at hand, when he realized someone was behind him, and he turned around.

Dani Silva was there, staring at him weirdly. He nodded and said: “Nice to see you too; I heard you have caught a bank robber, congratulations.”

Dani smiled and sat down “Thanks; turned out, that robber had a very interesting story to tell … “

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah; wanna know it?”

“To be honest, I don’t have much time, so … “

“Come on, Fusco, it’s about Shaw and Groves … “

“Wha … what?” The man paled visibly.

Dani nodded; it was now clear that Crane had told her the truth, and that Fusco knew a lot about this story. She pushed on “Oh, yes, everyone should have any right to be frightened by Shaw, she is really a scary woman, she can kill a man without even flinching … but you are a friend of hers, aren’t you? Well, she was talking to you ten minutes ago, so … “

Fusco lowered his voice “Let’s go somewhere private.”

Dani shrugged, but lowered her voice as well nonetheless “Why? Nobody is listening to us.”

“Well, someone could … or better, something … “

Dani raised an eyebrow, then nodded and followed the man into an empty room.

They sat down, then Fusco asked her: “Are you sure you want to know? It might blow your mind.”

“Riley was a friend, and I want to know exactly what happened to him, so my answer is yes.”

“I don’t know … Jesus … “

“Listen, Fusco, if you tell me what you know, I’ll give you a piece of information that will make you happy.”

“Really? Okay, Silva, you tell me first, and I swear that I spill everything I know in return.”

“Groves is probably still alive.”

“What? No, no, I saw her body … “

“I know, you were supposed to see her body and, I think, to make others aware of her death … but she is alive. You care for her, don’t you?”

“Yeah, we have been through a lot together.” He was visibly uptight and touched. “But what did that robber tell you?”

Dani summarized what Crane had said, then looked at him expectantly “Your turn now.” And Lionel Fusco told Dani Silva anything he knew about the Machine, Samaritan, and his comrades in that war.

When he finished Dani was stunned, then she got up and put an hand on his shoulder “Okay, Lionel, as hard all this is to believe, I think it’s true; it matches what Crane told me. Now you might want to go to meet Shaw and help her find Root, if she is still alive; they deserve to be together.” She was moved too. The man nodded.

 

It was late in the afternoon, and Sameen Shaw was lying in her bed, dozing after trying once again to give some meaning to her life, and once again failing spectacularly. She had hoped that the grief she was feeling would fade eventually; she had thought that she had only to keep her mind busy, working the numbers; no such luck. She was missing Root so much … that damned, loved woman … the doorbell woke her up, and she went to open.

“What the Hell, Lionel, I told you not to come here … “ She stopped talking when she realized he was deadly serious.

“She’s probably alive, Shaw.”

Shaw’s heart began to throb faster, and she asked, both hoping and fearing the answer “Who is alive?”

“Root.”

She started to hyperventilate, eyes shining with unshed tears. Her voice was shaken. “Don’t … don’t give me false hopes, Lionel, I couldn’t bear that.”

“Samaritan intervened before I could see her; she was under the effect of some powerful narcotic, and after I had left they took her away, but she was alive; what happened after her abduction, I am not so sure, but if someone could survive in such a mess, well, I’d place my bets on Root.” And he told her what Dani Silva had told him.

Shaw turned on her phone, then drew her gun and said, deadly calm: “Is she alive? You don’t answer, I kill myself, ok?”

No answer; she put the barrel against her head, then the phone buzzed ‘SHE IS ALIVE’.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

‘SHE DIDN’T WANT ME TO.’

“Give me her address.” The Machine complied.

“Okay, robot; one last thing: you said she doesn’t want to see me. So, if you warn her, she’ll probably run. Which means that you won’t warn her, okay? Otherwise, I‘ll kill myself, and please excuse me for being so repetitive.”

‘UNDERSTOOD.’

Shaw smiled, and addressed a shaken Fusco “Thank you, Lionel, I’ll take it from here.” 

“Would you … if … “

“Yes, Lionel. If the Machine hadn’t answered, I’d have shot myself. The life I’m leading now is not a real one. Let’s see if I can change this.”

 

Shaw was sitting in her old car, parked about thirty yards away from a small red-brick house in East Bronx. After half an hour its dweller came to the door, carrying a shopping bag.   
Shaw’s heart skipped a beat: it was Root, undoubtedly, but she looked tired and weak.

She sprang and, before the hacker could lock the door behind herself, she rushed inside, shoving Root in the process. The bag fell and a noise of something breaking was heard; the taller woman turned around, and when she saw Shaw a strangled cry came from her mouth.

“Sameen … God!”

“Yes, Root. Time for an explanation, don’t you think? By the way, sorry for breaking your eggs.”


	3. Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This last chapter is unbearably sappy and over sentimental, but it’s how I like it. Don’t like, don’t read.

The two women were sitting in the kitchen, and Root spoke first. “How did you find me, Sameen?”

“Lionel told me you were probably alive. A Samaritan operative who knew about you attempted a bank robbery, was arrested and spilled a lot of stuff to Dani Silva, a friend of Fusco.”

“Still, this doesn’t explain how you got my address.”

“The Machine told me.”

“Oh, really?” Root looked hurt.

“Do you feel betrayed by Her? You shouldn’t: I didn’t leave Her any choice.”

Root raised an eyebrow, quizzically, then shrugged and began to narrate “Samaritan abducted me at the hospital, and its doctors saved my life. They held me captive after that.”

“I know. What did they want from you?”

“My cochlear implant, I think. But they didn’t remove it, because Greer wanted to try to turn me against the Machine, so they decided to wait, and they only deactivated it; but then, Finch unleashed the virus and Samaritan died, along with Greer.”

“And when did you escape?”

“I didn’t. A doctor working there wasn’t a bad man, so when Samaritan fell, he simply let me go, even if he had been ordered to kill me with some drug.”

Shaw was incredulous “So, it’s two months now, and you never thought of telling me you were alive?”

“Sorry, sweetie, I … “

Shaw snapped “Don’t say that! Just give me an explanation. And it better be a good one! I thought you were dead, Root! Lionel saw your body, then he called Reese, and I was with him. And when he looked at me, shaking his head … ” She was unable to continue.

Root nodded; she looked dejected, and Shaw was almost regretting her harshness.

The taller woman went on “When they set me free, I reactivated my cochlear implant, so I know what had happened. John … is dead, which is hard for me to accept, more than I could think … I really liked him; and Harold has fled.  
I got out of the facility, which was located here in New York, but I found it difficult to walk for more than two, three minutes, so I sat down in a chair in a bar somewhere. But since I had no money, I was forced to stand up and keep walking. Then I don’t remember well, I passed out, probably, and someone picked me up. I woke up in a hospital, and they made me undergo some clinical tests.  
A doctor came to my bed and told me about my … health issues, asking me if I was aware of them … I wasn’t.”

Shaw's anger was replaced by worried concern now “What do you have, Root?”

“My heart has endured a lot, apparently, first time when Control tortured me, then this last wound … and soon I have to pay the bill.”

“What is the prognosis?”

“Three years, five if I am lucky … unless, of course, I can get a transplant.“

Tears began to well in Shaw’s eyes. “I am so sorry … but why didn’t you come to me?”

Root smiled sadly “How did you feel when you thought I was dead?”

Shaw pondered on that question, then said: “Lost. I felt lost. And empty, and purposeless, too. In a word, dead.”

“Because you care about me, don’t you, Sameen?”

Shaw nodded “I have never cared about someone so much, not even my parents … “

“Then how could I make you feel like that twice in your life? The first time, when Lionel called John; the second time, when I peter out because of my illness. I didn’t want to put you through the same ordeal again.”

Shaw exhaled and nodded “Okay, now I get it. So please, keep your mouth shut for a while.”

There were some minutes of tense silence, then Shaw looked up at her companion, smiled warmly, and began to speak “Sorry that I kept you waiting, but I had a bit of mull over to do.”

“I understand, Sameen.”

“Okay, that’s what I want to tell you. For starters, as I said, I get that you did this because you care … you love me; you love me to the point of being willing to spend the rest of your life alone, forlorn, miserable … sick, only because you didn’t want to hurt me again. That’s a great deal of love, Root.”

Root smiled weakly “Yes, that sounds like me.”

“But you were utterly wrong, Root. Because, you stupid woman, I love you as much as you love me, I can see it now.” Shaw said, taking Root’s hands in hers.

“Oh … “

“Do you know how many times I felt tempted to kill myself? To escape my empty life? And, do you know why the Machine gave me your address? I threatened her with a gun to my head, that’s why!”

Root gasped “Oh, my, Sameen, I swear, I didn’t think you could be affected that much … “

“Yeah, me neither; I guess we were both wrong.”

“So, what do we do now, sweetie?”

“You showed me your love, the wrong way, now you let me show you my love, the right way.”

“You mean … “

“I mean, you come with me, and let me take care of you … please, baby, I want this, I need this.”

“But … “

“This is not negotiable. Can you imagine how meaningless my life is going to be if I abandon you now, knowing you are alive and suffering, lonely? No way! I would kill myself without a second thought.”

“And … when I die … will you … ?”

“Root, you are the strongest woman I know … after me, maybe, and I am not sure we have to stick to that diagnosis so strictly. Maybe they’ll find a cure, or you’ll get a new heart, I don’t know. What I know, is that I’ll be on your side, always, and if you have to … fade away someday, I’ll be with you … I’ll hold your hand … looking into the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen, and at that smile that can lighten a dark room … thanking God for the time we have had together. Yeah, I am sappy, am I not?”

Root was touched “Oh, Sameen, would you marry me, too?”

“Of course, anything for my beautiful girl. I’ll marry you, and I’ll love you ‘in sickness and in health, till death us do part’.”  
Shaw’s cheeks were streaked with tears, and her voice was strained, but she felt weirdly happy; she felt like her love was so great that it could shield Root from anything, that the two of them together were invincible.

Root was deeply moved too “Okay, Sameen. I was so wrong, sorry. I am yours, and you are mine. Take me home, please.” 

Then the two woman hugged, tears both of grief and of joy running freely from their eyes. 

They didn't know how long they had together... Who does?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I borrowed the last line from ‘Blade Runner’


End file.
